Armenia suspends CSTO membership to boost arms deals, says Prime Minister

Armenia has suspended its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to facilitate access to international arms markets, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

Addressing the Security Forum, Pashinyan explained that continued participation in the CSTO had become a significant impediment to executing arms supply contracts, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

“Our membership in the CSTO was a serious obstacle—I wouldn’t call it the second, but the third or even fourth obstacle—to accessing this international [arms] market,” the prime minister said.

He further noted that in 2022, Armenia signed agreements valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, yet these deals were never fulfilled due to restrictions associated with CSTO membership.

By Vafa Guliyeva